Not clear if kaMagwaza-Msibi will attend bash

NFP leader Zanele KaMagwaza accompanied by her husband at the party's launch of its party manifesto for the 2014 general election.

A day before the NFP’s fourth anniversary on Saturday, it was still uncertain whether ailing party leader Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi would attend the celebrations.

The party was waiting to hear from kaMagwaza-Msibi’s doctors if she would be well enough to speak at the event, at the Cecil Emmett Rugby Stadium in Vryheid, National Freedom Party secretary general Nhlanhla Khubisa said on Friday.

“The anniversary celebrations had been planned around her and we are waiting to hear from the doctors. If they give us the go-ahead, she will be there.”

If kaMagwaza-Msibi, who is also deputy science and technology minister, was not able to attend, a speech written by her would be read at the event.

Last month, kaMagwaza-Msibi’s office said she had not returned to work since her hospitalisation last year. Her spokesman Canaan Mdletshe did not know when she was expected back, saying it would depend on her doctor.

Mdletshe said the NFP leader’s hospitalisation last year was stress-related.

The Newcastle Advertiser reported last year that she was admitted to Mediclinic Newcastle’s intensive care unit on November 16, before being transferred to the eThekwini hospital’s ICU.

The Witness newspaper reported at the time that she had suffered a stroke, but this has never been officially confirmed.

Senior NFP officials in January admitted none of them had spoken to their leader since she took ill in November, but insisted she was doing well.

At the time, Khubisa said kaMagwaza-Msibi was recovering from “fatigue and depression”.

The SABC reported that the family had barred the party’s leaders from visiting kaMagwaza-Msibi. Only Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor had access to her.